Mini lobster season; and smuggling

Lobster Mini Season is coming up this week, which always reminds me of the smuggling which goes on in the easement next to where I live.

Lobster Mini Season is a couple of days in July, where recreational boaters, divers, etc. get a crack at catching spiny lobsters before the commercial fishing season begins. There are rules, which many poachers do not follow – 6 lobsters per person is the limit around here, other areas in the state allow 12 per person.

The lobster must be 3 inches and larger and there are other rules. But over the years I have seen people sneaking large quantities in through various means.

I enjoy looking out onto the bay the first thing in the morning during these two lobster mini season days, and where it’s usually quiet and empty, there are little boats, with diving flags, and people diving for the lobsters. It’s a scene.

It’s not overwhelming, but it’s different than a usual morning.

Back to the easement – it’s next to where I live, it’s only about 15 feet wide, and it is a little trail to the bay. It’s well-known with amateur fishers, smokers, dog walkers and others who sneak in and do their thing. It used to be very jungle-like, which was a living history of old Florida – it’s what the neighborhood was like over 100 years ago.

And that secret little area is special to some lobster hunters, too. I’ve seen them pull boats up to the seawall and hand off hundreds of lobsters in dozens of coolers to waiting people on land, and the lobsters end up a few feet away in a van on the street, which speeds away to wherever.

The boat then heads back into the bay, pulls into a dock somewhere nearby, their catch is counted and measured by the coast guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife and the poachers are off with their “legal limit.” While their illegal limit is off somewhere in a van.

I’ve seen this more than once and not realizing at first what was going on, started yelling at the people to leave. Now I know better. I don’t argue with people doing illegal things. But it bothers me when I see it.

As for the easement – I saved it for the neighborhood. Some neighbors wanted to turn it into an open area with lights and a cement sidewalk, with benches at the waterfront, which would have been a disaster for this special place.

Stay tuned, I’ll tell you about it next time.